Solved Catalyst Control Center Problem (Can't Run, Can't Uninstall)

[jblaker]

I'm using Win 7 64 bit on a Dell XPS 8300 with an AMD Radeon X6700 graphics card. At the start of my problem the Catalyst Control Center (CCC) appeared on my all programs list in Start with a red x. The app would not start, no error message(s). I went to Control Panel and the uninstall/repair for the CCC. It ran and said repair successful. However, the CCC would not open. I went to the AMD site and it had a way to check whether I had the latest driver and I do. I searched on the web for solutions and tried the one that talks about public key tokens. When I followed the instructions in safe mode (by the way I can no longer activate safe mode with the F8 key since this mess began, I use MSCONFIG.EXE, Boot Tab) I checked for the public key tokens identified in the solution and did not find them.

Using the above mentioned solution involved uninstalling CCC and I did this after going to the AMD site and downloading the version for Win 7 64 bit so I could reinstall. When I reinstalled there was no listing in the Start all programs list for CCC. I went to the directory for ATI and tried several setup.exe files to no avail. One did bring up an install/uninstall application that I tried and told me I had no components of CCC on my system. So I went to Control Panel uninstall again and tried to uninstall CCC. It would not work. I get the message: The application failed to start because its side by side configuration is incorrect. Use sxstrace.exe for more details. I went to the run box in Start and ran sxstrace.exe and something flashed on the screen in a black background so fast it was unreadable by the fastest speed reader.

I have no idea what to do now. I don't know what side by side configuration means. I have cleaned my registry (found a number of error entries related to CCC) after the several install and uninstall attempts.

Any help would be appreciated.

Jon

 

[James7679]

Hello jblaker. Welcome to Seven Forums. Could you tell us when this problem started to occur? If so, have you tried restoring the system to a time before the problem started to occur?
Also, we don't recommend "cleaning the registry" here. It can, very ofter, do more harm than good.

 

[jblaker]

Somehow I resolved the CCC problem without a system restore to an earlier point. After several tries at uninstall it appear I successfully uninstalled. I then, after downloading the AMD file 12-4_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc.exe file and installing all is working, at least for now. Why do you suggest not running registry repair?

 

[James7679]

Good to see you resolved the issue.

Old or obsolete registry key are no problem for Windows 7. However, deleting a key that another program or process may be looking for can be a problem. Again, very often, registry cleaners can do more harm than good. If you ARE going to use one, backup your registry first.